Novartis Muscle Drug Sales May Reach $4 Billion, Developer Says

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- Novartis AG’s muscle-building drug
bimagrumab may reach as much as $4 billion in peak sales,
according to the medicine’s co-developer.

The forecast is for the use of the treatment, known as
BYM338, in all indications, according to Simon Moroney, chief
executive officer of MorphoSys AG, the company that developed
the drug for Novartis. He spoke yesterday at an investor event
in Munich.

Novartis has said it plans to ask regulators for permission
to market the drug to treat sporadic inclusion body myositis, a
rare disease characterized by weakening muscles, as early as in
2016. MorphoSys will receive mid-single-digit percentage
royalties on sales of the drug, Moroney said. Novartis hasn’t
given a revenue estimate for the drug, Anja von Treskow, a
spokeswoman for Basel, Switzerland-based drugmaker said in an e-mail.

The drug is currently being tested to treat other
illnesses, and the largest share of sales will probably be from
ailments such as cachexia, the weight and muscle loss that’s
often found in patients with illnesses such as cancer and
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Moroney said. The
forecast is the result of an external estimate MorphoSys
commissioned, he also said.